Sunday, May 3, 2009

Geographical Tongue

So...anyone ever heard of this??? For us, I'll start at the beginning. The second day after being united with Yonatan we started to notice some random weird white spots on Yonni's tongue. At first I just thought he had a couple of fever blisters, but by the third day they had grown into lines and circles and then the next couple days they seemed to move around in different places on his tongue. Jokingly I said it looked like his tongue was an alien road map. Being in Ethiopia at the time, we started asking and no one really seemed weirded out by it or worried, but no one really had answers either. Scott and I started really freaking out. After being there a week, a new family came into the guest home and the wife was a dental hygienist and she right away suggested that it was "geographical tongue". After returning to the US, that was one of the questions we had for the pediatrician. Of course, the day of our appointment, his tongue was completely normal. We described what was going on and he too right away said "Geographical tongue". He too seemed to not even give it a second thought and said don't worry about it. I've since been trying to research it and have read horror stories from random Internet sites but on webmd and more trustworthy sites, they all suggest that it is really nothing.
The mayo clinic says...
"Geographic tongue is a harmless oral condition that gives your tongue a map-like, or geographic, appearance. The distinct look of geographic tongue occurs when parts of your tongue are missing the layer of small bumps called papillae. Although geographic tongue may look alarming, it doesn't cause any health problems and isn't associated with infection or cancer. Geographic tongue is usually painless but can sometimes cause tongue discomfort and increased sensitivity to certain substances. Geographic tongue often heals in one area and then moves (migrates) to a different part of your tongue. Geographic tongue is also known as benign migratory glossitis."
So anyway, random info about our son's tongue. At this point he doesn't seem to be bothered by it, so I'll try not to either. I think he thinks that sticking your tongue out all the time to show people is just a common thing, like saying hi(-: And just because I think its rather interesting to look at...here are some pics(-:

7 comments:

leililan said...

gross

leililan said...

and now... sorry for being so mean!

Jeremy and Sheila said...

As strange as this may sound, thanks for sharing!! I think I would panic too, so now I know not too.

VikingMom said...

I've heard of it before (probably from one of my many searchings on Google for kid symptoms.) However, I've never actually seen it...pretty crazy, it kind of looks like tongue camouflage. As long as he's happy and healthy--all is well with the world!

Brad and Fran Hoagland said...

Ok, so I am way behind on catching up with my fav blogs, but I just caught up on yours from back when you guys travelled to bring Yonni home. I've got to say, that both of your boys are absolute dolls. And what Elijah wrote about doing everything with his little brother is just precious. Love it!

Annie said...

WOW! I've never heard of that before...glad that it isn't cause for any great concern. And how fun that he gets to stick out his tongue without getting in trouble ;)

Mom to many said...

Ya know what? I think our Destiny has this, too! I showed the dr. as I was concerned and he called it "something I can't remember" But hers has spots that do move, too === not quite as pronounced as your little guys, though. Sort of cool! (at first I thought it was burns, but it changes spots and she is too little to stick her tongue out for a cool picture to show)